1. “Culture is what feels normal but is actually social…it is what we often do not notice at home but certainly will in a foreign context”.
Culture
Chapter 3

2. Have you ever experienced culture shock?
What identifies culture? How can it be defined?
A vague term…Why?
Traveling to another country???
Coming to America???

3. Discussion Outline I. Defining Culture II. Types of Culture
III. Components of Culture

4. I. Defining Culture
Culture can be loosely defined as a set of beliefs, traditions, and practices.
Learned patterns for thinking, feeling, and acting
Transmitted across generations
Adapts and changes overtime
Human minus nature-Non biological
What we often see as natural or innate is more often cultural
Example???

5. Defining Culture Culture = Superior (Man) – (Inferior) Man
Ethnocentrism
The belief that one’s own culture is superior to others, and the tendency to view all other cultures from the perspective of our own
How might a conflict theorist view ethnocentrism? A functionalist theorist?
Examples?

6. II. Types of Culture (1.) Material vs. (2.) Non-material?
What are the material and nonmaterial cultures of …?
-Raves
-NFL Football

7. Cultural Lag
Material culture often changes faster than non- material culture
Examples?
-Cell phones streaming television
-Artificial Reproductive Technology

8. Studying Types of Culture
Cultural Relativism
Cultural scripts
Marriage and proposals
Subcultures

9. III. Components of Culture
Norms: Social Rules
Social Expectations
“Should”, “ought”, and “must”= Social Control
Sex, Property, and Safety
Are norms subjective or objective features of society?
Are there rules for behavior in public restrooms?

10. Components: Types of norms
Folkways-Customs for etiquette
Mores-Moral Codes
Laws-Formalized norms
Are all laws also mores?
How are these types of norms enforced in society?
Informal vs. formal sanctions.

11. Components
Values: broad ideas regarding what is desirable, correct, and good that most members of a society share
-How we evaluate and make important choices in the social world and culture in which we live
I.e.: What type of economic system is best?
What does success mean?
What is beautiful?
-Beauty is a social and cultural construction
-In western cultures (America), what is ideal beauty? What is the perfect body?